Organic Cheesemaking Farmstay in Coonoor, Nilgiris, India.

Sustainability

We have grown up in the 'Industrial Age' that has given so many goodies and perks for the human species that it was hard to criticize it or even see objectively when it comes to sustainability.  But now the cracks of complete systemic collapse are all around and seriously questions the 'worth' of the Industrial Paradigm.

The Industrial paradigm has 2 main pitfalls.  One is the deviation from nature as a fundamental outlook - in other words science and technology can improve on poor old mother nature.  And secondly - that it is all about 'growth' and 'profit'.

To understand the first it is best to read the thoughts and efforts of Masanobu Fukuoka - The man who in a slim and efficient book 'One Straw Revolution', put the truth of nature's rules for all of us.  Winner of Magasay Award and definitely my guru.

As for the second, even a child knows that infinite growth is impossible and undesirable.  Yet our mainstream economics talks about steady 7% growth. Scary idea.  A fixed arithmetic growth is actually exponential as it compounds over time and leads to an exponential consumption of resources.  Take a primer at Professor Bartlett's Site. Yet the market cheers when growth is up and mourns when it is down.  How strange!   Even stranger is that we talk about sustainability in the same breath as infinite growth and use phrases of contrary terms like 'sustainable growth'.  Insane!  Here are some links that prepare you for what is truly meant by sustainability.

The Crash Course - an excellent presentation by Chris Martenson that puts the 3 E's - Economy, Energy and Environment in perspective and correlation of today's collapse in all.  But I found the first part on Economy the most illuminating as I was better aware on Energy and Environment.  He smartly uncovers the trickery and illusion that exists in mainstream economics and all that is doomed to crash by it's very self-deception.

Friends of Narmada- The most comprehensive site of the epic battle against large dams by the Narmada Bachao Andolan led by Medha Patkar. This web site is not just about a Large Dam and the poor helpless people displaced etc, but it epitomizes just about everything that human beings are doing wrong.   Getting aware and being involved in the Narmada issue and struggle awakened me to the other side of development and made me deeply question the main-stream and industrial paradigm.  Opened my mind to the other side of just about everything.  I feel blessed.

Tragedy of The Commons - So you can't just take the Narmada away from the people who live there.  So now please do read this concept of The Commons, a common resource that all are free to use but don't know how to misuse.  Read here some basics of The Commons

The Humanure Handbook - The bible for people who have often wondered why human beings ‘do their do’ in gallons of drinking water!!! That is exactly what we do. Very interesting and eye opening book on one of the most fundamental kinks of our species.  To read more completely about what the author Joseph Jenkins is all about, go to his web site at Joseph Jenkins Inc.

Primitivism- Primitivism is the pursuit of ways of life running counter to the development of technology, its alienating antecedents, and the ensemble of changes wrought by both. This site is an exploration into primitivism theory, as well as various works that contribute to an understanding of the tendency.

Dismantle Civilization - This blog hopes to pull together many diverging strands of information, to illustrate that the problem lies not with any one simple factor, but with the whole culture that we call civilization. The way we have been raised to view humans as superior and separate to nature, and hence how we behave in relation to our surroundings is ultimately the problem.

Tarun Bharat Sangh Home Page - organization setup by Rajender Singh who has done pioneering work in Water Harvesting and revival of underground water sources and rivers in Rajasthan. I have made the link to Rajender Singh’s profile within that site as it gives a good idea to this kind of work he has done.

Arne Naess & The Deep Ecology Movement - Arne Næss, whose concept of deep ecology enriched and divided the environmental movement. A keen mountaineer, for a quarter of his life he lived in an isolated hut high in the Hallingskarvet mountains in southern Norway.

Through his books and lectures in many countries, Næss taught that ecology should not be concerned with man's place in nature but with every part of nature on an equal basis, because the natural order has intrinsic value that transcends human values. Indeed, humans could only attain "realization of the Self" as part of an entire ecosphere. He urged the green movement to "not only protect the planet for the sake of humans, but also, for the sake of the planet itself, to keep ecosystems healthy for their own sake".

Shallow ecology, he believed, meant thinking the big ecological problems could be resolved within an industrial, capitalist society. Deep meant asking deeper questions and understanding that society itself has caused the Earth-threatening ecological crisis. His concept, grounded in the teachings of Spinoza, Gandhi and Buddha, entered the mainstream green movement in the 1980s and was later elaborated by George Sessions in Deep Ecology for the Twenty-first Century.

Rainwater Club - based in Bangalore are into rainwater harvesting design and treatment of gray water. These are principals that we definitely want to incorporate at Acres Wild if we want it to be gentle on the environment and a sustainable farm and farmstay.

Journey to Forever - A unique site with lots of free online books about all the relevant issues connected with soil and sustainability. Find it here in the Small Farms Library Section

Article from ‘The Farm’- This piece of writing is so heart-wrenching, because of its honesty and conscious effort at lack of bias, that I had to put it here. It is about a place called ‘The Farm’ that was started as a self-sustaining community and farmstay in the US and its final fate. Scary and tragic stuff but you have to read it even if you are planning idealistic stuff like Acres Wild. In fact all the more why one should read it. The return to basics is not easy at all. Actually this is the web link to The Farm.

Some Ideas for Unconventional Living - a page from a site called Unconventional Ideas. Really a great collection of simple thoughts on this page about what we really need to be doing in the face of Peak Oil and what not. You will find other lovely yet simple essays about all the things we have forgotten.

In Context - A Quarterly of Humane Sustainable Culture. Very well written and positive articles on aspects on how to achieve sustainability in the context of our modern lives. Their approach is solution-oriented rather than problem focused. I suggest you follow this link to their free back issues to read their articles.

The Ascent of Humanity - A very very interesting blog by Charles Eisenstein.  You can read the free version of his book 'The Ascent of Humanity' at this link to the online version.

International Rivers Network (IRN) - protects rivers and defends the rights of communities that depend on them. IRN opposes destructive dams and the development model they advance, and encourages better ways of meeting people’s needs for water, energy and protection from damaging floods.

Organic Pastures - A site about a family-run farm in California that keeps loads of cows and re-educates us about the virtues of drinking raw milk. Kind of puts in perspective why pasteurization ever happened and why it is damaging. It kills all the bacteria and a lot of other good stuff and generates histamines that cause a number of allergies to milk.

Soil and Health - A good source for free books online and some to download on agriculture and health issues. You can find 'One Straw Revolution' by Masanobu Fukuoka online here to read too.

Zero Budget Natural Farming - A concept and practice by Shri Subhash Palekar.  From a background of traditional farming he went to learn and practice chemical agriculture for over a decade.  But his outputs declined and he resorted to Gandhi's teaching and to finally evolve a method called Zero Budget Natural Farming.

The Complete Site on Gandhi - that's exactly what it is. Good time to take a look at the guy who said it all but we decided that modern economics and the super-malls were a better choice. Anyway I don’t mean to reduce his thinking to just an explanation of that - it is much more and we all know it.

Vidhya Ashram - I read a book called ‘ Gandhi’s Challenge to Modern Science’ (Other India Press), that struck some deep chords in my mind on ideas that were dormant and so I did not really realize they were there. Namely - the follies of western scientific thinking starting with its logic therefore that kind of science and technology that is proving disastrous to the world at large. This inspired me to send an email to the writer of the book, Sunil Sahasrabudhey who lives in Varanasi and so I went there to meet him. It started a lovely dialogue and relationship on all kinds of ponderings. Vidhya Ashram is a unique institution started by him and others. It is best understood by visiting the web page.

Come to your Senses - That is where it all was. Lose your mind and Come to your Senses - strangely when we say ‘come to your senses’ today we mean the thinking part - the what we call ‘Common Sense’ part. The thinking part. In today's context when we mainly live in our minds and our new found awareness of the ‘old or primitive’, the phrase takes on a new meaning - or did I mean the actual ‘old’ meaning……….. Anyway also a great site to learn some very valuable ‘Primitive Skills’ like making a fire (easy?), how to make cordage (rope!) and what not. Maybe very useful in times to come.

Healing Daily- focuses on self-care, natural health and wellness, body detoxification, colon cleansing, oral chelating, removal of toxins from the body, liver detoxification, internal cleansing, heavy metal detoxification, healing naturally and alternative approaches to achieving health. Learn how to take responsibility for your health today.

Green Cross Society - "The sewage system was designed by a plumber and improved by hydraulic engineers. Today, it needs to be urgently worked out with the input of a microbiologist too. It cannot be left to an engineering department.". This is a core thought of Shantharam Shenai, who is popularly known in and around Mumbai as the “Garbage Guru,” is successfully demonstrating “earthworm technology” for recycling and sustainable ecological re-development. Shantharam is demonstrating how deep burrowing earthworms are capable of replacing soil in one year that would take 200 years to re-generate naturally. His idea is to use these earthworms to convert all forms of wasted organic matter into usable bio-fertilizer or multi-purpose sanitation products. Check out this deeply passionate and enlightened site on some of the curses of our times - waste and sanitation - especially urban sanitation.

Waste to Health - Mr. Bhawalkar graduated in Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 1973. Here he gives a lot of practical info on his work away from chemical fertilizers and towards natures way like working with organic waster and earthworms, nature's farmer as well as composter.